Pro Amicitia et Litteris

Highs and Lows: Zagreb Day 3

Today was a series of unfortunate events for St Andrews A. Luckily St Andrews B have had a better time. Overall we are pretty exhausted. Also in debating news we should point out the tab team are awesome and for what is probably the first time in Euros history the tab was ahead of schedule not once, but twice today!

R4: THBT EU member states should nationalise all their oil and gas resources and operations in order to surrender total ownership and control to an EU run energy agency. R5: THB That States of the Former Yugoslavia Should not Commemorate the Events of the Yugoslav WarsR6: This House Would Introduce Blind Voting

Charlie really wanted to write the blog today so it is my pleasure to present “Charlie’s corner”

Hello friends and fellow St Andreans,

Gillis and I have capped off today with several enthusiastic renditions of Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day”. Spirits are obviously high in our camp. Our gambit, The Submarine, in which we intentionally lost early rounds to position ourselves for a late push to break, has been executed to perfection. We’ve switched things up a bit; Gillis now speaks first when we’re OG or OO (a move your humble correspondent has been advocating for some time), and today we took two firsts in this set up.

It’s been great experiencing some of Croatia, and mingling with debating types from all over the continent. I think we’re learning a lot at this tournament, and we’re really glad to have the opportunity. Some B-team highlights:

— We had been really excited for a drunk kebab after the night out last night, only to discover the place was closed. Gillis stared into the distance and said “nobody said it was easy.” Coldplay flowed naturally. — Croatian waiter informed me this morning that “Dramatic,” the club we were at last night, was a gay club. Somehow a shirtless bartender, a stripper pole, and a general rainbow palette throughout didn’t tip us off. Guy on the bus said the popularity of the strip pole with male debaters was about challenging gender roles. Only debate. — We were very scared (given our ignorance on history of the former Yugoslavia) of the motion for round 3. Genuine exchange from the round: POI: President Tadic’s involvement radicalizes the conflict! Serbian competitor (read with accent -Ed.): Tadic had nothing to do with the 90s. He can’t organize anything, let alone a civil war. He is a bloody bastard. I apologize. — We took a first by a̶c̶c̶u̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ implying our opponents might be fascists. We’re calling this The Fasc-n-Dash. #futurechiefwhips

Today was more exhausting than funny, but here’s what we have for today: Funny Stories

1. Alyssa’s motion suggestion “THW create a pit of dead Ebola bodies” research was going well.2. Charlie and Gillis set themselves a challenge of 5 shots each for every point under straights last night (meaning 10 each) – despite not meeting their target both were late to breakfast with the first request being for painkillers from Alyssa’s traveling pharmacy.